Checkmate in Thirteen Moves Chess for Dummies
by The Lady Avaritia
Summary: The one with the bike. That's him.


**Title: Checkmate in Thirteen Moves (How to play Chess for Dummies)**

**Rating: T**  
**Spoilers: G**eneral

**Characters**: Rivalz

**Summary: The one with the bike.**

**Disclaimer: **disclaimed

**Author: **_Lady Avaritia_

13.

"Allow me to introduce to you our newest Student Council member, and effective vice-president, Lelouch Lamperouge! Let the party begin!"

Milly pops the non-alcoholic champagne, signaling the start of the party.

'He is ridiculously hot,' Shirley whispers.

'He's also a bit of a jerk, Milly says fondly.

'He can also hear you,' Lelouch joins in. He has a sharp handsome face, and cold amethyst eyes, and a self-assured smirk, and an air of pure arrogance, and Rivalz feels like he should be bowing in his presence. That's his first impression of Lelouch. He was somewhat… regal.

12.

Rivalz will lose this time… All the hard-earned money… His mother was right to warn him… He should have never gotten involved in illegal gambling. And why, why chess? He sucks at chess! Damn it.

'Pardon. I think that is my turn. Lelouch Lamperouge. Your next opponent.'

Rivalz turns around sharply. Right there, in his school uniform, carrying a school bag and a History of the World AP, which is too huge to fit in the bag, stands Lelouch. He looks down on him. He looks down on the noble with the bodyguards.

'Another student, huh? Go ahead kid,' he laughs, self-assuredly. Lelouch smirks his you're-going-down smirk.

Rivalz is just so happy, he can barely think straight. He scurries off to free the chair for his classmate.

'Stay,' says Lelouch pleasantly. 'We'll walk to school together.'

'But,' Rivalz protests, 'I'll be late.'

'Ten minutes?' Lelouch cocks an eyebrow.

Rivalz stays, and watches as the smug mask on the noble's face cracks around the edges, falls off and shatters. The ten minute mark passes, and Lelouch is leaning back in the chair, twirling the black king in his long elegant fingers. His eyes shine with something scary and dark and destructive.

'Give him the winnings,' he says flippantly, gesturing towards Rivalz without looking his way.

11.

Rivalz bought a motorbike with the first money him and Lelouch earned together.

10.

he loved Milly blindly and passionately. She was his Aphrodite, and she was out of his league. Lelouch pretended he didn't notice. Lelouch was good at pretending like that.

Lelouch had the decency to lie about the fact that Milly had chosen him. Lelouch had the decency to lie about a lot of things. Rivalz never held it against him.

9.

There was the very real threat that Lelouch would kill him the millisecond he found out Rivalz had even the faintest interest in Nunnally. His love for Milly was painful and bright and angry. His love for Nunnally was soft and gentle, like the girl itself.

Lelouch smiled at him, a genuine smile, beautiful and pleasant, but his eyes remained cold and calculating.

'You know, Rivalz,' He said, 'You're one of the best friends I've ever had…

(lies, all lies)

'And I believe you, of all people, know how dear Nunnally is to me. I would hate it if something happened to her. And I would kill anyone who comes within an inch of her with anything but the purest of intentions. I know I can trust you with that knowledge.'

He'd flashed his award-winning smile again, and Rivalz had gone straight back to pining after Milly.

8.

Rivalz had genuinely liked Suzaku as a friend. The boy was open and honest, nothing like Lelouch.

The year after the Black Rebellion, when Suzaku had returned to Ashford, it felt as if he was talking to another person. Suzaku's eyes were just as cold as Lelouch's.

7.

He could never let go of the feeing that there was something wrong with Rolo being there, as if he wasn't supposed to exist.

6.

He spent his last year at high-school flunking his classes and going to underground chess tournaments. He was proving a point. To himself? To Lelouch? To Milly?

He wouldn't know. All he knew was that observing Lelouch has proven more helpful to his strategic skills than any edition of _Chess for Dummies_.

When the headmaster called him and explained that he may have to repeat the year due to unexcused absences, Rivalz went back on track.

But he was beginning to understand that dark triumph that lurked in Lelouch's eyes after a game well-played.

5.

He refused to believe that the Lelouch he'd known had anything to do with the Demon Emperor. Night after night, as he served at the bar, he theorized about swapped consciousness, and body-thieving.

4.

He was kinda of sad that Nina liked girls. Something may have really worked out there.

3.

He wanted to smash Lloyd Asplund's smug face with a baseball bat. Made of steel. Covered in spikes. Dipped in poison. Multiple times.

He shared that impulse with Suzaku, who laughed for five minutes straight, then shook his head.

'I've never met anyone who knows Lloyd and doesn't want to do that.'

Then they laughed together.

2.

Milly kissed him once on the lips by accident. She'd been aiming for his lips. He blushed crimson for days afterwards whenever she met his eye. It was his first kiss.

1.

Lelouch had been his best friend. His only real friend. He would like to remember him that way. He would like to cherish the memories of Ashford forever.

If he could, he would turn back time, and go straight back to their golden days.

0.

He sold the bike exactly a week after Nunnally was made empress. He had a nagging feeling that he knew from somewhere other than the news.


End file.
